{"id":238169,"date":"2026-03-26T22:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/238169\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T22:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:16:07","slug":"city-council-considers-apppealing-fresnos-discrimination-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/238169\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council considers apppealing Fresno’s discrimination penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tWhat’s at stake?<\/p>\n

While the city’s insurance would pick up most of the bill (about $10 million) the city manager says Fresno City Hall could have major insurance problems going forward.<\/p>\n

Half a dozen Fresno residents had a very clear message Thursday about a $15.4 million verdict that the City of Fresno is on the hook for in a discrimination lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of them, speaking during the March 26 City Council meeting, spoke out against the Fresno City Council\u2019s appealing the verdict in the lawsuit \u2014 something Councilmember Mike Karbassi has spoken about publicly after saying he doesn\u2019t think the City of Fresno has the money for the multi-million dollar judgement.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed seven years ago over racism and retaliation in a hostile workplace at Fresno\u2019s code enforcement department. La-Kebbia \u201cKiki\u201d Wilson, who is Black, said she was targeted by her supervisor, who, among many things, called her the N-word.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Wilson\u2019s court testimony proved without any doubt that she endured years of mental and emotional mistreatment by a supervisor who referred to Miss Wilson by using racial slurs with no regard or respect for her as a person,\u201d said Cynthia Sterling, a former city councilmember, and the president of Black Women Organized for Political Action\u2019s local Fresno chapter, during public comment Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sterling added that the City of Fresno must compensate Wilson $15 million, as ordered by a jury in federal court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen will action be taken to remove individuals who continue to subject both coworkers and community members to what appears to be unchecked racism?\u201d said Sonia Davis, another Fresno resident who spoke during public comment. \u201cWhile the council appears focused on whether to appeal the jury\u2019s decision in Mrs. Wilson\u2019s case, where is the concern for holding the perpetrators accountable?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another member of the public, Eugene Taylor, spoke directly to City Council President Nelson Esparza.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYour city manager and your city attorney had a chance to correct it, and they didn\u2019t, and now it\u2019s a consequence,\u201d Taylor said to Esparza at the Thursday meeting. \u201cHold them accountable. Put something on your record to stand up for the black and brown community, because she\u2019s only one \u2014 that\u2019s the one that got caught. You guys be a stand up person and hold them accountable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s case was on the agenda for closed session at the March 26 Fresno City Council meeting. It\u2019s unclear if councilmembers will support appealing the major verdict in federal court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the City of Fresno doesn\u2019t appeal the federal court verdict, it would have to pay only a third of the $15 million because the city\u2019s insurance policy would cover $10 million under an excess coverage insurance policy, City Manager Georgeanne White confirmed.<\/p>\n

However, White said the City of Fresno would be running the risk of losing insurance coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot stress how detrimental that would be,\u201d White told Fresnoland. \u201cIf we are not able to obtain excess coverage, the City would be 100% responsible for claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

White added that if the city doesn\u2019t obtain insurance comparable to its current coverage, a future insurer for the City of Fresno could make the city\u2019s deductible higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council approves military equipment use report<\/p>\n

Despite ample community concern about the Fresno Police Department\u2019s noncompliance with state law, the Fresno City Council approved the agency\u2019s annual military equipment use report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For more than a year, community members have aired concerns over the Fresno Police Department failing to hold state-mandated community engagement meetings about the military equipment in its possession.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though Fresno police held its first community engagement meeting<\/a> Wednesday night \u2014 in compliance with a four-year-old law that requires it be held annually \u2014 Fresno residents have criticized still-outstanding compliance issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The police department\u2019s military equipment use report does not summarize how military equipment is used by officers, even though that\u2019s required by a state law known as AB 481. It also doesn\u2019t list personnel costs, another required disclosure under state law.<\/p>\n

A handful of community members spoke during public comment Thursday, urging the Fresno City Council to delay the adoption of the annual report until the police department fixes its compliance issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fresno City Council unanimously approved the report.<\/p>\n

Arieana Castellanos, a local resident part of Fresnans for a People\u2019s Budget, told Fresnoland she was disappointed in Thursday\u2019s outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was opportunity for revisions this time around. The community and elected officials are part of the enforcement mechanism responsible for holding the police to laws they are required to follow,\u201d Castellanos told Fresnoland. \u201cSo it\u2019s unfortunate that there wasn\u2019t more consideration from council or a thorough review of last night\u2019s community meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fresno City Council is currently meeting behind closed doors in closed session. This story will updated when the public meeting resumes.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What’s at stake? While the city’s insurance would pick up most of the bill (about $10 million) the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-238169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}